GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #26 - The Clifton House Mystery

This week on my podcast, we were talking about The Clifton House Mystery. Shown on Sunday tea-times in 1978, this drama serial aimed at children told the tale of an ordinary family who moved into a most extraordinary house, one with a troubled history and ghostly goings-on galore! 

The series was co-written by Daniel Farson, who around this time was penning a series of volumes for younger readers on all things weird and wonderful - such as The Beaver Book of Horror, and lavish volume on ghosts, horror and monsters for Hamlyn. So perhaps it is no surprise that he also would get the gig writing the novelisation for the TV series. As was often the case with tie-in novels for films and TV shows, the book was released just as the series was airing which meant that if you had the pocket money available, you could read the book and find out how the show ended before the last episodes aired! However the real value of such tie-in tomes back in the day, was that these novelisations were the only way of reliving a TV show or movie you'd seen in the days before video recorders or on-demand services.  Of course now, you can buy the series lovingly remastered courtesy of Network DVD, but for many decades the only was to go back to this haunting series was by getting hold of a copy of this paperback... 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #25 - Corpse Roads

After the success of Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies book last year, the Folk Horror Revivalists have been at it again, and now Folk Horror Revival: Corpse Roads is here. An epic collection of spellbinding poetry, focusing on folk horror, life, death and the eeriness of the landscape, accompanied throughout with atmospheric imagery by an impressive collection of contemporary photographers. And it features classics works by the likes of William Wordsworth, Charles Baudelaire, Charlotte Bronte, WB Yeats, HP Lovecraft, John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, to name but a few, and a whole slew of modern works exploring folk horror themes. 

Paperback: 564 pages. photographically illustrated throughout.

£15 UK

$19.80 ( + tax) USA

(for local currencies change little flag to own area on top of sales page)

Google for Lulu discount code before ordering to make great savings

100% of book sales profits are donated to The Wildlife Trusts

And you can grab a copy here - 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/folk-horror-revival/folk-horror-revival-corpse-roads/paperback/product-22769608.html

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #24 - The Tourist's Guide to Transylvania: A Traveller's Handbook of Count Dracula's Kingdom

In 1960, the Sierra Club published a tome entitled This is the American Earth, and while that isn't perhaps the most promising of titles, the book was to be a truly seminal tome. Conceived by David Brower, it was packed with photos and sprinkled with concise text pieces, and on the face of it that might not seem a winning combination, but Brower's key insight was that "a page size big enough to carry a given image’s dynamic. The eye must be required to move about within the boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance." And hence, out of the blue, Brower and the Sierra Club had invented the coffee table book. 

The volume was a hit and many more followed in its wake, with more and more publishers realising that there was a market for what were essentially picture books for grown-ups. Obviously lots of these were cynical exercises in recycling stock photographs and public domain art with only a minimum of text necessary. However by the mid '70s, the market was large enough to support more interesting endeavours, with the next milestone being the publication of a collection of Roger Dean's fantasy art in the tome Views (1975 Dragon's Dream). Views was such a success that it led Roger to team up with his brother Mal Dean, to form their own publishing house Paper Tiger, which brought to the world lavish books showcasing the art of the likes of Rodney Matthews, Chris Achilleos and Boris Vallejo. 

Naturally other publishers jumped on the fantasy art bandwagon, for after all most publishing houses had shelves full of cover art just waiting to be recycled. But while Paper Tiger and Dragon's Dream produced properly curated collections with insightful text about the artists, their careers and their techniques, how did one create a book from assorted pieces by divers hands and originally intended for very separate purposes? Well, while some hoped that just the allure of plenty of spaceships and dragons, plus often some naked ladies would be enough, others took a more creative approach...

...And a brilliant example of this was a tome produced by Octopus Books - The Tourist's Guide to Transylvania:  A Traveller's Handbook of Count Dracula's Kingdom. First published in March 1981, this large format hardback purported to be written by one Count Ignatius de Ludes, but was actually created by Stewart Cowley & associates. And while it only had a mere 78 pages, what a 78 pages they were, featuring glorious art from the likes of  Les Edwards, Alan Lee, Terry Oakes, Peter Goodfellow, and Alan Hood. Now I discovered this tome not long after its publication, on the shelves of the local supermarket of all places if I recall correctly, and even then I recognised several of the pictures had graced the covers of various horror and fantasy tomes I had seen or read. However that hardly mattered, as these were the full paintings, uncluttered with titles and taglines, and looking absolutely marvellous on large glossy pages. The pictures really came to life once liberated from diminished paperback sizes - a perfect example of Dave Brower's insight quoted above, and I'm sure I am not alone in that seeing these familiar bits of cover art reproduced in a massively lavishly format was actually a major attraction...

However where the book would have a lasting appeal, was the wonderful text that linked all the art together. For this was indeed a comprehensive guide to the strange land of Transylvania... Or rather the Transylvania of the popular imagination - a land of night (and high electricity bills presumably) filled with all kinds of weird supernatural beings. However, the Transylvania conjured up by the quill of Count de Ludes was a far more exotic place than the mittel-European, demi-Victorian landscape built on the imagery of Universal and Hammer movies. Here trolls and ogres stalked the mountain passes alongside the more expected werewolves, and high castles were as likely to be home to arch mages as vampire nobility. It is a land riddled with dark magic, where past mingles with the present and strange daemons open vistas to eldritch cosmic spaces.

Now obviously the creation of this somewhat idiosyncratic version of Dracula's homeland was born from necessity, as the paintings to be featured in the tome were often pieces that had graced the covers of SF or fantasy novels. However as the old saying goes necessity is the mother of invention, and the resulting guidebook actually delivers a rather unique vision all of its own. The good Count's text is written with the occasional slip of the tongue into cheek and a knowing wink, generally having fun with the concept of writing a tourist guide to a place so full of monstrous beings and occult hazards that no one in their right mind would take a holiday there. However at the same time, there's clearly a good deal of thought and imagination gone into creating this travelogue from an alternative world, and as an older wiser fellow I now can recognise a reasonable amount of research went into it too, with some references to hermetic magic and a large chunks of folklore informing the guide. 

The only real downside is that while the subtitle trumpets the name of Dracula and the dust-jacket prominently features a Count clearly modelled on Sir Christopher Lee (plus he appears on the actual boards of the book as seen below), the actual text only ever makes passing references to Transylvania's most infamous son. However despite this being a bit of an initial disappointment, the wealth of weird and macabre lore presented more than make up for his absence. The Tourist's Guide to Transylvania summons up an entertaining and imaginative realm of dark fantasy, the kind of meeting of magic and gothic than would later be explored in Dungeons & Dragons' Ravenloft campaign setting and darker fantasy RPGs such as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - indeed games masters looking for a blend of fantasy and horror for their game will find much fuel for their imaginations in this tome. 

All in all, this is a rather fun tome to have on your shelves, perfect for some armchair travelling in the darker realms of the imagination. And there are still plenty of copies in decent condition out there - so then if you fancy a trip to the Count's homeland, get searching! 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #23 - Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies

Something of a different GGS this time round folks. Many months ago, I was very honoured to be asked to contribute to a new book on folk horror by the very talented Mr Andy Paciorek (whose marvelous uncanny art and books can be found here. And hence I penned an extensive essay looking at the folk horror elements in the ghost stories of MR James, unearthing the role of folklore and landscape in his tales. 

Now what is folk horror? Well, I think the book's contents listed below will give you a fair idea of what lies in this particular subgenre, but as a quick thumbnail guide think movies like The Wicker Man, Blood on Satan's Claw, Witchfinder General, cult TV shows like Children of the Stones, and the more unsettling tales I regularly investigate in Folklore on Friday. The tome weights in at a massive 500 pages, illustrated throughout with artwork by Alan Lee, Paul Rumsey, Julia Jeffrey, Morgaine Art, GB. Jones and Andy Paciorek. Featuring essays and interviews by many great cinematic, musical, artistic and literary talents, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies is the most comprehensive and engaging exploration to date of the subgenre of Folk Horror and its associated fields in cinema, television, music, art, culture and folklore. 

Available now HERE

The full contents are -

• Foreword, Disclaimer & Acknowledgements
• Folk Horror: From the Forests, Fields and Furrows; An Introduction by Andy Paciorek
• Subtle Magic and the Thrill of The Wicker Man by Sharron Kraus
• An Interview with Kim Newman
• Public Information Films: Play Safe by Grey Malkin
• An Interview with Philip Pullman
• Hysteria and Curses in Nigel Kneale’s Baby (Beasts) by Adam Scovell
• An Interview with Paul Rumsey
• The Green Children of the Woolpits by Karl Shuker
• Sacred Demons: The Dramatic Art of David Rudkin by John Coulthart
• The Last Broadcast by Rich Blackett
• Folklore and the River: A Reflection on Davis Grubb’s The Night of the Hunter by Stephen Canner
• Quatermass II (Nigel Kneale): The Fears of the Outsider Within the Landscape by Adam Scovell
• An Interview with Gary Lachman
• Weird Americana by Andy Paciorek
• An Interview with Julia Jeffrey
• The Wanderings of Melmoth by Jim Peters
• The Traditional Jack in the Green by Chris Walton
• Ghosts, Landscape and Science by Nick Brown
• An Interview with Dr Bob Curran
• The Music of The Cremator and Morgiana by Grey Malkin
• One Small Step for Man: Hunting the Nephilim by Cobweb Mehers
• A Paean to Peter Vaughan by Andy Paciorek
• Other Thoughts, Other Voices: Cults, Hive Minds and a New Philosophy of Horror in the Work of John Wyndham by Dan Hunt
• The Haunted Landscape of Brian Eno: Ambient 4: On Land by Adam Scovell
• Srpski Vampir by Lauri Löytökoski
• The Primrose Sloop of War by Chris Bond
• Phantasms of the Floating World: Tales of Ghostly Japan by Andy Paciorek
• The Folk Horror of Doctor Who by Adam Scovell
• Colin Wilson: Reflections on an Outsider by Gary Lachman
• Morgaine Art by Karen Hilder
• An Interview with Andrew McGuigan: Cumbrian Cthulhu
• Paul Ferris: Witchfinder General Soundtrack Review by Grey Malkin
• An Interview with Thomas Ligotti by Neddal Ayad
• “Just That Little Bit Dark, Haunting and Dramatic”: An Introduction to The Hare and the Moon by Jim Peters & Grey Malkin
• An Interview with Dr Simon Young – The Fairy Investigation Society
• Nordic Twilight: Scandinavian Horror by Andy Paciorek
• “See Ye Not That Bonny Road?”: Places, Haunts and Haunted Places in British Traditional Song by Clare Button
• Kill Lists: The occult, paganism and sacrifice in cinema as an analogy for political upheaval in the 1970s and the 2010s by Aaron Jolly
• MR James: The Presence of More Formidable Visitants by Jim Moon
• An Interview With Drew Mulholland
• Albion’s Children: The Golden Age of British Supernatural Youth Drama by Andy Paciorek
• The Sacred Theatre of Summerisle by John Harrigan
• All you Ever Knew About Vampires Is Wrong: A Transcript of a Fortean Meeting Talk by Tina Rath
• An Interview with Robin Hardy
• The Haunted Fields of England: Diabolical Landscapes and the Genii Locorum by Phil Legard
• Sauna: Abjection and Redemption in the Liminal Spaces by Madeleine Ledespencer
• Hell’s Angel Blake – An Annotated Guide to a Coven at Bix by Andy Sharp
• The Old Hag Phenomenon by Jasmine Gould
• The Olde World Mythology Behind Saurimonde by Scarlett Amaris & Melissa St Hilaire
• Unearthing Forgotten Horrors by Darren Charles
• An Arthurian Antichrist: Alternate Readings of Kill List by Andy Paciorek
• Darkness, Beauty, Fear and Wonder: Exploring the Grotesque and Fantastical World of Czech Folk Horror by Kat Ellinger
• Folk Horror and the Virtual Demiurge – Making False Trails – How Lies Can Be Used to Create New Folklore by Chris Lambert
• Women of Power and Justice: Witches in Folk Horror Movies by Judika Illes
• An Interview With Alan Lee

100% of all profits from sales of the book will be charitably donated to environmental, wildlife and community projects undertaken by The Wildlife Trusts. We would encourage whenever possible for FHR books to be bought directly from Lulu (as linked) as all of the profits will go to charity whereas if bought via Amazon or other sellers they take a big chunk for themselves. Also Lulu is a safe efficient site and service, that offers discount codes fairly regularly which offer savings for the buyer but retain the full charitable donation.

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #22 - Tracing the Dark Carnival

Dark Carnival was Ray Bradbury's first  book, comprised of some twenty-seven tales, and published by the legendary Arkham House in 1947. While Bradbury would become famous as an SF author, he had always written more than just science fiction, and the early stories collected in Dark Carnival showcase Bradbury's dark side in a brilliant collection of eerie fantasies and imaginative horror tales. Now then, the tales in Dark Carnival have had a long and tangled publishing history (as alluded to last week), which I shall attempt to unravel here. Here are the details of the first edition -

DARK CARNIVAL
(Arkham House 1947 US)

1. The Homecoming
2. Skeleton
3. The Jar
4. The Lake
5. The Maiden
6. The Tombstone
7. The Smiling People
8. The Emissary
9. The Traveler
10. The Small Assassin
11. The Crowd
12. Reunion
13. The Handler
14. The Coffin
15. Interim
16. Jack-in-the-Box
17. The Scythe
18. Let's Play 'Poison'
19. Uncle Einar
20. The Wind
21. The Night
22. There Was An Old Woman
23. The Dead Man
24. The Man Upstairs
25. The Night Sets
26. The Cistern
27. The Next In Line

Next the anthology was reprinted in the UK by Hamish Hamilton, with new cover art from Michael Ayrton. However this edition dropped seven of the stories and also rearranged the running order.

DARK CARNIVAL
(Hamish Hamilton 1948 UK)

1. The Crowd
2. The Emissary
3. The Jar
4. The Lake
5. The Man Upstairs
6. The Night
7. Skeleton
8. The Small Assassin
9. There Was An Old Woman
10. Uncle Einar
11. The Tombstone
12. The Next In Line
13. The Wind
14. The Cistern
15. Homecoming (former The Homecoming)
16. The Dead Man
17. Let's Play 'Poison'
18. The Handler
19. The Smiling People
20. The Traveler

This edition only includes twenty of the original stories. The missing tales were -

1. The Maiden
2. The Night Sets
3. The Scythe
4. Reunion
5. Interim
6. Jack-in-the-Box

Several years later, fifteen of the tales in the original Dark Carnival were reprinted, some in a revised form, in a later collection entitled The October Country. This was published in the US by Ballantine Books in 1955,  with cover art and interior illustrations by Joe Mugnaini. The October Country also included four additional tales, which had previously appeared in other places, but fitted in nicely to the autumnal feel of this collection. 

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY

(Ballantine 1955 USA)

1. The Crowd  (DC)
2. The Emissary (DC)
3. The Jar  (DC)
4. The Lake  (DC)
5. The Man Upstairs (DC)
6. The Scythe (DC)
7. Skeleton (DC)
8. The Small Assassin  (DC)
9. There Was An Old Woman (DC)
10. Uncle Einar (DC)
11. The Dwarf  (OC)
12. The Next in Line  (DC)
13. The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse (OC)
14. The Wind (DC)
15. The Cistern (DC)
16. Homecoming (DC)
17. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)
18. Touched With Fire (OC)
19. Jack-in-the-Box (DC)

(OC) = new stories added to The October Country (1955)
(DC) = stories from Dark Carnvial (1947)

The October Country was also printed in the UK by Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. in 1956, again with a cover by Joe Mugnaini, a variant of the US edition, but with the stories in a different order.

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY
(Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. 1956 UK)

1. The Dwarf (OC)
2. The Next in Line (DC)
3. The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse (OC)
4. Skeleton (DC)
5. The Jar  (DC)
6. The Lake  (DC)
7. The Emissary (DC)
8. Touched With Fire (OC)
9. The Small Assassin (DC)
10. The Crowd (DC)
11. Jack-in-the-Box (DC)
12. The Scythe (DC)
13. Uncle Einar (DC)
14. The Wind (DC)
15. The Man Upstairs (DC)
16. There Was An Old Woman (DC)
17. The Cistern (DC)
18. Homecoming (DC)
19. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)

Right then, pay close attention, because this is where it gets complicated! The first paperback edition from Ballantine in 1956 reprinted all nineteen stories, and used the running order from the UK hardback. And this remained the format for subsequent paperback editions in the US. Furthermore Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. reissued The October Country as a hardback several times down the decades, retaining the same contents. 

However the UK paperback editions somewhat confusingly slimmed down the book, whittling down the story count to thirteen. And there was to be another significant change too - for only twelve tales from The October Country would be included, and the thirteenth tale would be The Traveler from Dark Carnival. This new line-up of thirteen stories first appeared in the 1961 paperback edition from Ace UK, but later was adopted for other editions from the New English Library (in 1970 and 1975), and Panther (1976 and 1984). 

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY - UK Paperback Edition
(Ace UK 1961)

1. The Dwarf  (DC) (OC)
2. The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse (OC)
3. The Skeleton (DC) (OC)
4. The Jar (DC) (OC)
5. The Traveler (DC)
6. The Emissary (DC) (OC)
7. Touched with Fire (OC)
8. The Scythe (DC) (OC)
9. Uncle Einar (DC) (OC)
10. The Wind (DC) (OC)
11. There was an Old Woman (DC) (OC)
12. The Homecoming (DC) (OC)
13. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)

However it was a regular publishing convention that large books of short stories like this would often be broken up into two separate volumes for the paperback release. And while they often appeared marked as Such-And-Such Volume 1 and 2, it was not uncommon for publishers to retain the original title for the first half but publish the second with an entirely new title.

So then, in the UK, the missing tales would get a separate volume of their own, one  that was not billed as The October Country Vol. II. Instead the rest of the stories would appear in a paperback entitled The Small Assassin. However in this case, as there were only seven stories left over, it was decided to make up the shortfall with a selection of tales from Dark Carnival that have not made it into earlier versions of The October Country.

THE SMALL ASSASSIN 
(Ace UK 1962)

1. The Small Assassin (DC) (OC)
2. The Next In Line (DC) (OC)
3. The Lake (DC) (OC)
4. The Crowd (DC) (OC)
5. Jack-In-The-Box (DC) (OC)
6. The Man Upstairs (DC) (OC)
7. The Cistern (DC) (OC)
8. The Tombstone (DC) 
9. The Smiling People (DC)
10. The Handler (DC)
11. Let’s Play “Poison” (DC)
12. The Night (DC)
13. The Dead Man (DC)

The Small Assassin was reprinted in paperback by Four Square in 1964 and 1965, then again by the New English Library in 1970 and 1973, by Panther in 1976, and again by Pather/Granda in 1984. The last edition was by Grafton in 1986. So then, all but five stories from the original Dark Carnival were printed in The October Country and Small Assassin UK paperbacks. For the record, the uncollected tales were -

1. The Maiden
2. Reunion
3. The Coffin
4. Interim
5. The Night Sets

Now for years, Bradbury forbade a reprinting of Dark Carnival, because he had revised many of the stories for The October Country. However he relented in 2001 and allowed a limited edition to be done. This luxury reprint was limited to 750 copies and featured four new stories and an afterword by Clive Barker. And even more limited edition of 52 copies was produced that was lettered, leather-bound and trayed. This version was signed by both Bradbury and Barker, came a CD of an audio interview with Bradbury, and with a chapbook contained an extra tale - Time Intervening 

DARK CARNIVAL

(Gauntlet Press 2001 US)

1. Jack-in-the-Box
2. Let's Play 'Poison'
3. Reunion
4. Skeleton
5. The Cistern
6. The Coffin
7. The Crowd
8. The Dead Man
9. The Emissary
10. The Handler
11. The Jar
12. The Lake
13. The Maiden
14. The Man Upstairs
15. The Next In Line
16. The Night
17. The Night Sets
18. The Scythe
19. The Small Assassin
20. The Smiling People
21. The Tombstone
22. The Traveler
23. The Wind
24. There Was An Old Woman
25. Uncle Einar
26. Editors Notes - essay by Donn Alright
27. Dark Carnival Revisited - essay by Ray Bradbury
28. Dark Carnival: A History - essay by Jon Eller
29. The Last Unknown: An Afterword by Clive Barker
30. The Sea Shell*
31. The Watchers*
32. Bang! You're Dead!*
33. The Poems*
34. The Homecoming
35. Interim

* new stories added in this edition

However previously the Gauntlet Press also published a limited edition of The October Country too in 1997 for its 40th anniversary. This was limited to 500 copies, with a deluxe leather-bound edition of 52 copies. There were no new stories added to this edition, so I shall spare you all another listing!

And finally, and for the sake of completeness, Bradbury was to write few more tales concerning the strange and monstrous Elliot Family who feature in three tales first published in Dark Carnival, which would appear in his collections The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), The Toynbee Convector (1988). In 2001, all the Elliot Family tales were collected into a single volume entitled From the Dust Returned and woven into a novel format. It was published by William Morrow/Harper Collins and appropriately enough featured a cover by Charles Addams. 

1. The April Witch (from The Golden Apples of the Sun 1953)
2. Homecoming (from Dark Carnival)
3. West of October (from The Toynbee Convector 1988) 
4. On the Orient North (from The Toynbee Convector 1988) 
5. Uncle Einar (from Dark Carnival)
6. The Traveler (from Dark Carnival)
7. From the Dust Returned (originally only published in The Magazine of Fantasy &Science Fiction, September 1994) 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #21 - The October Country

When I was young, I had a huge appetite for anthologies of weird fiction, largely spawned by my encounters with previously discussed volumes such as Deadly Nightshade, Ghostly Gallery and Ghosts, Spooks & Spectres. After ploughing through a great many short stories collections, I began to assemble a mental list of authors, writers that I knew always delivered a cracking tale. And if I saw an anthology in a library or bookshop that had a  tale by one of "The List" which I hadn't read or didn't already own, said book instantly was borrowed from the library/bought if I had the pocket money to spare.  

Now one of the oldest names on "The List" was Ray Bradbury, whose classic story The October Game in Deadly Nightshade made an unforgettable impression upon me, and if you've ever read that very dark and masterfully told tale you will know exactly what I mean. And as one of the top names on "The List", I was naturally mad keen to my little mitts on anything by Bradbury. The first book of his that I owned was a battered Corgi paperback edition of The Illustrated Man, which naturally I adored, but I was keen to track down some collections of his more horror-orientated tales.

I'd gleaned from somewhere, probably a bio blurb, that the collection I wanted was Dark Carnival, which by all accounts featured some of his most famous horror tales. I would later discover that this was his very first book, and also published first by the legendary Arkham House. However I also learned very quickly that it was wasn't readily available in his country, and it was even in the late 1970s already changing hands for well beyond pocket money prices. But fortunately, I also soon discovered that through a long and tangled publication history, that I will outline another day, a good two thirds of the tales in Dark Carnival had later been reprinted in another Bradbury collection entitled The October Country.

And this particular book had  been split into two volumes for the UK paperback market, with one half appearing as the edition that you can see pictured above and the other as another paperback entitled The Small Assassin. Now I luckily discovered this just as I had some birthday money to spend, however less fortunately, it would only stretch to one book. So which did I choose? Well, obviously the one with the grinning skull and what looked like a Grim Reaper on it! Seriously though, despite the considerable allure of that bony visage on the cover, the very title just appealed to me... The October Country... a promise of place where the leaves are always turning, the scent of bonfires haunts the air, and Halloween is always near.

The full line-up of tales in my edition was - 

The Dwarf

The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse

Skeleton

The Jar

The Traveler

The Emissary

Touched with Fire

The Scythe

Uncle Einar

The Wind

There Was an Old Woman

Homecoming

The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone

Now if you are familiar with all or just some of the tales from Dark Carnival or the original version of The October Country - for many have been reprinted elsewhere over the years - I think you'll agree the most horrific of them actually ended up in The Small Assassin. Now that's not to say that there aren't some fine horror stories in this collection - real skin freezers like Skeleton or The Emissary - but there are also plenty of eerie fantasies too, haunting tales that touch the heart or make you smile, making this selection the lighter half of the stories on the whole. However despite that, this book certainly did not disappoint my younger self, and The October Country was somewhere I'd revisit time and time again.

Admittedly there were a couple of stories that would take time to grow on me - The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse I'm looking at you - but on the whole, I fell in love with these stories right from the first reading. Just as his SF was always about more than just silver rockets and strange planets, so too in these weird tales: the darkness Bradbury is exploring is our own inner spaces, breaking the boundaries of our usual thinking, and mapping the chambers of the human heart. Hence even when Bradbury takes us to the more whimsical regions of his autumnal lands, there is still a real weight to the tales, delivering stories that resonate in the mind and capture the imagination just as powerfully as as the pure horrors found in the likes of The Jar.

The lighter tales in this collection also acknowledge the romance and appeal of the horror genre. As a life-long lover of Halloween, Bradbury's October Country reflects the fun as well as the frights of the dark season. And nowhere is this seen more clearly in the loose trilogy of tales concerning the Elliot Family. In The Traveler, Uncle Einar and Homecoming we are introduced to a strange clan of folks who dwell on the dark side, and possess many strange talents or shapes. In many ways, Bradbury's family are the forerunners of similar but more well-known macabre enclaves, the Addams Family and The Munsters. But while those two more famous families were played just for laughs, Bradbury's tales are far more profound, exploring a secret world that where the darkness has been embraced, where horror is celebrated as a virtue, and being monstrous is the norm. The Elliot Family tales are tremendous fun, but they also have a great deal to say about our own attractions to the horror genre, that blurred line where having fun is being frightened, and where we get to swap places with the monsters for a while.  

Now around this time of the year, the web fills up with features and articles recommending spooky tales for the Halloween season, and you can discover a great many classic chillers perusing them. However, if you want a collection of tales that are as beautiful as they are chilling, as lyrical as they are horrific, and one that imaginatively explores our relationship with the darkness, then book a ticket to travel to The October Country. And if you do, you may well find, that like myself, you'll be revisiting these tales this time every year...  

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #20 - The Armada Monster Book

By 1975 that powerhouse publisher of children's books Armada, had successfully established a paperback anthology series The Armada Ghost Books, which now ran to seven volumes, with a eighth in the works. And with three anthologies on fantastical beasts - Witches (1972), Mermaids And Sea Creatures (1973) and Dragons (1974) - edited by Carolyn Lloyd doing well too, it is no surprise it was thought that a companion series on monsters would go down well too. 

And to helm this new vessel that would be a Noah's ark of things with fang, scale, fur and tentacle, Armada turned to one of their frequent contributors of ghostly tales, R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Now this fellow had carved out a successful career as a writer of weird fictions - and you can hear more about the great man and his works here. Now in 1974 he had taken over the reins of the Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories series from Robert Aickman, commencing at the 8th volume proving his editorial mettle, and  furthermore with his great and idiosyncratic imagination and off-beat sense of humour, Chetwynd-Hayes was the ideal man to curate a series on monsters. He had often invented his own bizarre creatures and beings for his own tales, and his penchant for liberally mixing laughs with his chills made him a perfect choice to edit anthologies for children. Chetwynd-Hayes understand perfectly well the appeal monsters had for kids, and could be relied upon to deliver a finely balanced mix of fun and thrills to stimulate under imaginations.   

And the full menagerie of monsters he assembled is as follows -

The Sad Vampire by Angus Campbell
The Last of the Dragons by E Nesbit
Dimblebee's Dinosaur by Howard Peters
A Ride to Hell by Ruth Manning-Saunders
Inside the Monster by Lucian of Samothrace
The Chimaera by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Guardian at Hell's Mouth by Sydney J Bounds
Something in the Cellar by Rosemary J Timperley
Theseus and the Minotaur by Charles Kingsley
The Sea Serpent by Gerard James
The Thing in the Pond by Paul Ernst
Big Feet by R. Chetwynd Hayes

Now then, broadly speaking good old RCH is following the template established by Christine Bernard and Mary Danby in the Armada Ghost Books, and therefore we have the familiar mix of old classics, brand new tales and a sprinkling of folklore. However for the Monster Books, we have a couple of new ingredients in the mix. Firstly, we have the introduction of classical legends, for no self respecting monster book could fail to have some famous faces from world mythology. 

And hence we have two trips to Ancient Greece - there's a recounting of the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur, which was (and is) pretty much standard for any childrens' monster book past or present. But rather than wheel out the Minotaur's usual running mates, Medusa or Polyphemus, instead RCH includes Nathaniel Hawthorne's account of the Chimaera, neatly ticking the classic literature and classical legends boxes in one fell swoop. However for extra brownie points, we have Inside the Monster - the fantastical tale of life inside the belly of a monstrous whale from Lucian of Samothrace. It's actually an extract from a longer work Verae Historiae I (True History I) a 2nd century work widely hailed as one of the first science fiction novels. 

The other new element is of course the inclusion of tales penned by the editor himself. Now it was almost traditional for an author helming such an anthology to be allowed to include a tale of his own, which indeed RCH does. However he also rather cheekily includes a second tale billed under his alter ego of Angus Campbell. Big Feet is a fun romp riffing on the cliches of dragon slaying stories, while The Sad Vampire is the story of a young boy befriending a monster, albeit one that builds up to a rather wicked blackly comic ending. Now you might say that including two of your own tales is something of a low trick for an editor, but in this case when both stories are such good fun, I'm inclined to forgive him.   

However on the other paw... if I have one criticism of this volume, it is that as a whole the book is weighted a little too heavily towards to the comedic. For E Nesbit's tale is also poking fun at the tropes of dragon slaying, Dimblebee's Dinosaur see another school boy befriending a monster, and Rosemary Timperley's Something in the Cellar has its tongue firmly in its cheek too. So then, not counting the legends retold or the entertaining folk tale from the always reliable Ruth Manning-Saunders, we only have three stories playing it straight. I'm guessing that Armada wanted to keep these book fun and frothy but all the same I can't help feeling that a few more tales with some monstrous frights in them wouldn't have gone amiss. 

But then again, maybe that's just the horror fanatic in me coming out. For unlike some of the other anthologies we've looked at in the past that have wandered off-topic from their chosen subjects, The Armada Monster Book certainly delivers a different creature in every tale, and beasts from many different historical ages. And while I might lament a lack of more scary tales, it's certainly full to the trim with monsters. 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #19 - Fun To Know About Ghosts

Now previously in this little series of articles, we have chatted about the wonderful world of the Armada Ghost Books (specifically both here and there), however their fondly remembered line of anthologies wasn't their only venture into the realm of the supernatural, nor was it their only series of books. For Armada had learnt some important lessons in the publishing game, ones which made them one of the top publishers of children's book in the UK for several decades. 

Firstly their paperbacks were always the classic paperback format i.e. handily pocket sized and easily slipped into a blazer pocket or a school bag. Secondly they knew kids always appreciated good cover art, and interior illustrations were a huge bonus draw too. And thirdly Armada recognised that  most children are born collectors - hence if you release a string of books as a series and sell them at pocket money prices, the completist nature of many kids will ensure that the sale of one title will lead to them picking up the rest. 

Hence Armada had many series, often releasing three or fours books on the trot to get the ball rolling. And at the close of the '70s, they launched a new non fiction range, the Fun To Know About series. Now as far as I can tell, this series only ran to four volumes, and obviously today's volume instantly caught my eye... but for the record, the other titles in the series were - 

• Fun To Know About Dinosaurs (exciting!)
• Fun To Know About The Mysteries of Space (colour me intrigued!) 
• Fun To Know About Dogs (hang on, what's this doing in here?)

And although at the time, the volume on dogs very much looked the odd man out in the line-up, with hindsight (and adult eyes) I can see that the range was clearly trying to cover all bases in the market, looking to pick up readers of spooky tales, SF, science, and animals - four categories perennially popular with kids.

Naturally being obsessed with all things spectral and already hooked on the Armada Ghost books series, I snapped up Fun To Know About Ghosts as soon as I saw it. So then delights what did this tome deliver? Well, as was often the case with these kinds of non-fiction ventures for kids at the time (and indeed today) there was a mix of facts, lists, and fun activities with a sprinkling of humour. We kick off with an introduction that asks what are ghosts and discussing the kind of thing the books is going to serve up, and then get on a fun and informative A to Z of different types of ghosts, with related supernatural beings such as werewolves and ghouls creeping in too. Next we have a section on how to be ghost hunter, a piece on ghost photographs and how they were faked in the past, and a selection of ghostly encounters experienced by assorted celebrities. We then have a section on Halloween, in which we get a potted history of the spookiest holiday of the year, and in the most activity orientated part of the book, suggestions for holding a Halloween party. This includes a set of recipes for suitably eerie dishes such as pumpkin pie and  'Ghoul's Blood Tart'!

We then move into a historically themed set of items, which is where this book most overlaps with similar ghostly volumes. For we here have write-ups on the infamous Borley Rectory, the most haunted village in Kent (bonus points if you can name it), royal ghosts and haunted castles. After couple more short chapters detailing unusual and lesser known hauntings we have two long list style sections to round off the book - a round-up of interesting and odd ghostly facts, and finally another A to Z - this time of haunted houses and locations in the British Isles.  

It's a fun little book, and while there was several pieces on  things I was already familiar with (such as the aforementioned Borley Rectory and the pictured above Glamis Castle), there was more than enough new material to make this an indispensable guide to all things ghostly for my younger self. Given its grab-bag nature, this was an ideal tome to have by the bedside for some midnight study into the supernatural. 

Indeed I was so regularly consulting this book, I started looking for other tomes on the supernatural by Mr Sean Richards, but sadly to no avail. However, many years later I would discover that in fact I had already read and indeed owned many volumes by the same author - for 'Sean Richards' was in fact a pen-name of the great Peter Haining, an man we have already encountered several times in this series, and will no doubt be meeting again in the future too... 

And you can hear more about this little tome, including a few little readings, here - Microgoria 05 - Fun To Know About Ghosts

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #18 - Horror Top Trumps

Alright, alright, I know these aren't books per se... However they certainly lived on the same shelves as my growing collection of Armadas, Fontanas, and Hainings, and judging by the huge impression these sets of cards made on a whole generation of kids, there is a good case to made for them being two seminal unbound books of horror. 

First up though, some background history... 

In the 1960s, an Austrian company named Piatnik began making a card game called Quartets, primarily aimed at the educational market. Now Piatnik had been - pardon the pun - a major player in the card world, forming as Wiener Spielkartenfabrik Ferd Piatnik & Sohne in 1824, and therefore knew a thing or two about art and game design. In this new game, there was a deck of 32 cards, divided into eight groups of four cards each, and the goal of the game was to collect as many complete quartets as possible. Now the rules of the game were very similar to that well-loved card game Go Fish, but Piatnik's innovation was to create themed decks and give every card statistics to use in play, with the idea being that young minds could absorb facts while playing with colourful cards with appealing art. 

Quartets provided to be very popular and soon various other manufacturers were producing their own ranges of decks, with minor variations on the Go Fish rules. But by the early '70s, they also began expanding the scope of the themes, with a Germany company Alternburg-Stralsunder producing a variant series called Ace Trumps, aimed at appealing to boys,  featuring a range of decks themed on military and transport vehicles. Now other companies such as Schmid and Dubreq were doing similar lines, but Alternburg-Stralsunder had introduced new rules that simplified and sped up play, with the goal now being to win as many cards as possible. 

Not to be out-done, Dubreq launched new ranges of cards with an even more streamlined ruleset, and  the game of Top Trumps as we know it today was born. Launching in the UK in 1976/77 with a range of eleven different packs to collect and priced at 50p, comfortably in the pocket money range of most kids, Top Trumps became a genuine phenomena, with even adults enjoying the fun too. The game itself was simple to learn, easy to play, and involved the right mix of skill and luck. However soon the concept of collecting all the packs became a hobby in itself. Hence Dubreq were soon producing more and more decks, and as competitors and rivals began to hit the market, they began expanding the scope of their themes to appeal to a growing audience of players and collectors. And hence from the initial and profitable ranges focusing on vehicles, we soon had decks based on sports, history and animals, most of which largely held to the original ethos of Quartets in being factual, and therefore educational.

However as Trumps mania burned bright and fierce, roaring across the UK, evidently the over worked deck creators lapsed into some frenzied fever dream, for in 1978 a new range was launched consisting of just two decks. And these two packs would become infamous - the Horror sets! Appropriately enough the origins of these decks are shrouded in mystery, and despite the best efforts of Top Trumps historians and the propensity of the internet to turn up even the most obscure nuggets of trivia, no one knows who devised these sets or who did the notorious artwork. 

And possibly that might be for very good reasons, for these two packs, known as Devil Priest and Dracula to trumpologists, are dubious in the extreme, not so much designed but more flung together by some gibbering madman. Now all top trumps cards had statistics on them which you matched against each other in play to win cards. And usually these were derived from solid factual things about the cards' subjects such as height, weight, top speed, age etc. (although in fairness I did think that many vehicular decks needed more abstract categories such as Unobtainabilty and Boredom Factor). 

Now obviously for the Horror decks, providing the usual factual/educational basis was a real  challenge for the designers, apparently so much so that they ditched the entire concept and just made up their own nebulous categories. Hence each card gave its horror the following stats - Physical Strength, Fear Factor, Killing Power, and Horror Rating. Not a bad basis for some horror trumps you might think, and many would agree. However unfortunately the nameless designers decided to just bung in any old numbers in these categories, seemingly without rhyme or reason, leading to infamous playground enigmas such as why did Death only have a Killing Power of 95? 

However the discrepancies in the stats paled into insignificance compared to the actual subjects on the cards. Now in fairness we do have reasonably faithful portraits of the big names in the horror world, with the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolf Man getting semi-decent portraits albeit ones that appeared to be done in frenzied felt tip. But why is Godzilla wearing a tuxedo? Why is the abominable Dr Phibes purporting to be the Phantom of the Opera, while the famous Lon Chaney incarnation of the Phantom is moonlighting as 'the Hangman'? 

One might charitably assume that at some late stage it was realised that several horror icons and their images were under copyright and hence some desperate name changing was done. But then again,  just who in the name of Hades are some of these characters? Where the hell is Zetan and why does it have a Warlord and a Priest? And what is the Norse god Thor doing in here, and more to point why does he have four eyes? Just how hallucinogenic were magic marker fumes back in the '70s? 

Even monster-obsessed and Top Trump addicted kids at the time knew that these were a shoddy piece of work, but despite their numerous, infamous failings, we loved these decks. Yes, the art looked like something that had been rushed out by a lunatic ten year old hopped up on sherbet dips and Alan Frank's Horror Movies in a single rainy break-time. And yes, it's true that most of us could honestly claim to know better artists in our own classes. But despite the screaming crudity of the sets, these cards still cast a deep spell on the minds of a generation. While the artistic execution may have left much to be desired, the imagery had a manic energy, boldly mixing solid blacks with lurid colours, and attempting to be as horrible as possible with a gusto that bordered on unusually demented. 

And indeed horrible they were! In fact, I'm quite surprised that there wasn't a huge fuss and moral panic over these two decks. That might sound a bit far fetched, but consider this - I am very sure that you could not get away with selling a pack of cards called 'Devil Priest' to kids these days. And you certainly couldn't put a children's card game in the toyshops now that featured so many tortures, slayings and maimings, complete with severed limbs, spurting blood, and in one memorable case, shattered vetebratae. So then quite how there was never a huge outcry from self-appointed moral guardians back in the even more strait-laced '70s I'll never know.  

But certainly I think it's fair to say that Horror Top Trumps were much akin to the EC comics of the 50s or the video nasties of the '80s. They were the subject of playground rumour and it was a badge of honour to own a set. Horror Top trumps weren't so much played, but passed around like contraband - could you bear to gaze upon the bloody beheading in The Fiend? Brave the gruesome horrors of the Venusian Death Cell? Dare to ask again why is Godzilla wearing a fricking tuxedo?

With their gleeful crudity and unashamed gore, the visions on these cards made deep impression on all who saw them, haunting the imagination of an entire generation. And if you want proof of how  fondly remembered these sets are, just have a look at the prices of complete sets up for sale - at the time of writing, decks are regularly going for £50, a hundred times their original price. Yes, such is the power of these Horror Top trumps that people who should know better are prepared to pay large sums to relive their delights once more. Or possibly just to see if they are a as demented as they remember...

However despite the opiated nostalgic delights these decks bring us, they surprisingly still offer us a great game today... But I don't mean a round of Horror Top Trumps! Going to back the question of why some cards clearly have the wrong names on, looking through both decks now, it's very obvious that a large proportion of the art was heavily based on stills cribbed from assorted movies, hence Chaney's Phantom operating a gallows. But how many cards were sourced in this way? Where did our mysterious artist steal from? And was there actually a precedent for demented visions such as the Zetan Priest? 

Well, dear friends over the coming weeks we are going to unravel these mysteries in a new weekly series of articles - which I think I'll call the Tomb of the Trumps and hopeful reveal the secret origins of this iconic cards! 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #17 - The Midnight People ed. Peter Haining

Another collection of vampire fiction! And one which oddly enough has a cover that seems to echo the cover of a contemporary paperback anthology also devoted to tales of the vampire, The Undead edited by James Dickie. And as the two volumes surprisingly one share on tale in common - When It Was Moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman - they made a very pleasing complimentary pair on my bookshelves. 

Now The Midnight People was one of the many anthologies edited by the late great Peter Haining. First published in hardback by Leslie Frewlin in 1968, this collection of tales of blood drinkers has had several paperback editions down the years from Popular Library in 1970, Ensign in 1974, and the above incarnation from Everest Books in 1975. Furthermore it has been also published in the US as Vampires at Midnight in 1970 by Grosset & Dunlop, and more recently surfaced under the same title in 1993 from Warner Book with a new introduction by Sir Christopher Lee. 

Now the indefatigable Haining often used to arrange his anthologies by theme, and this one was part of a series of collections, each tackling a different aspect of the macabre - so while The Midnight People dealt with vampires, The Evil People (1968) served up tales of black magic and witchcraft, and The Unspeakable People (1969) purported to bring together the most horrible tales ever written. And more on those tomes another day...

...But back to The Midnight People. Much like Mr Dickie's collection which came a few years later, in his introduction Haining explains that he endeavored to create a collection of vampire fiction that didn't overlap with other volumes. And for my money, I think he succeeded admirably, with only the extract from Dracula being  and the MR James tale 'An Episode of Cathedral History' being likely to being already known to most readers. In the present age, we could add the extract from Varney the Vampire but at the time this collection was published reprints of this seminal penny dreadful were few and far between. Additionally the passing years have revealed that it is likely that James Malcolm Rymer actually penned this Victorian vampire epic rather than Thomas Preskett Prest. And while on the subject of names and titles, "Stephen Grendon" was actually a pseudonym for August Derleth, while Matheson's tale 'Drink My Blood' has also appeared under the alternative title 'Blood Son'.

The full contents are as follows -  

Fritz Haarmann ‘The Hanover Vampire’ by Montague Summers
The Vampire of Croglin Grange by Augustus Hare
The Vampyre by John Polidori
The Storm Visitor (an extract from Varney the Vampire) by Thomas Preskett Prest
Three Young Ladies (an extract from Dracula) by Bram Stoker
An Episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
Bat’s Belfry by August Derleth
‘And No Bird Sings’ by E. F. Benson
The Believer by Sydney Horler
The Drifting Snow by Stephen Grendon
When It Was Moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman
Over the River by P. Schuyler Miller
Drink My Blood by Richard Matheson
Pillar of Fire by Ray Bradbury
Dr Porthos by Basil Copper
The Living Dead by Robert Bloch
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes by Fritz Leiber
Postcript by Montague Summers

This volume is bookend with pieces by the noted vampire scholar Montague Summers, and we open with his account of the ghoulish crimes of a real life 'vampire' killer. W then follow it up with another alleged true story - 'The Vampire of Croglin Grange'. Now oddly enough when I investigated the Croglin case, having being fascinated for many years by the account here, I discovered a strange link to Varney the Vampire, and more curious still, the every section reprinted under the title 'The Storm Visitor' in this volume! Full details of this investigation can be found in Hypnobobs  #91 and Hypnobobs #92. 

Anyhow we then take a more or less chronological tour through vampire fiction through the ages. And refreshingly we have a wide variety of species of vampire on show here. Yes, there are the traditional blood-drinkers such as Dr Porthos, but we have plenty of unusual takes on the familiar fiend here. The Grendon/Derleth tale brings us a snow vampire, Bloch and Leiber explore in different ways the vampiric aspects of celebrity, Manly Wellman has the great Edgar Allan Poe meeting the undead, while Bradbury and Miller tell us tales from the vampire's point of view. And stranger things await too - there is little of the suave gentleman of the night, or even of the remotely human in EF Benson's 'And No Bird Sings', while some have questioned whether the thing unleashed in James' 'An Episode of Cathedral History' is actually a vampire at all - but whatever the creature is it certain fits in well here.

This book entranced me when I first got the hardback edition out of the library as a kid, and indeed I borrowed it several times to revisit its fine selection of tales. And while it was many years later that I saw a copy for sale, I was delighted to find it and bought it instantly. It is still a superlative selection of vampire tales and one can see why it has been reprinted so many times - essential reading for all lovers of the undead. 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #16 - A Book of Ghosts and Goblins

One of the things that always fascinates me is the lore of the playground - all those stories, rumours, crazes and fads that spring up in your schooldays. As we grow up we tend to forget that the world of the child is a somewhat different one, one where kids, whether at school or in the local neighbourhood, band together and form their own little communities. And unlike the world of the grown-ups, these communities are united by an oral tradition, whereby certain toys will be canonized as the coolest ever, other items deemed must-have fashion accessories or secret club symbols, and local knowledge, such as how the dog that lives at the house on the corner once bit some kid's toes off or such and such a house is haunted, is passed down through generations of children. 

And today's book came to my attention through being part of local playground lore. Now in our junior school, much like yours I'm guessing, as well as the school library, every classroom had its own mini library too. And naturally the lore of playground had something to say about their contents - a class room that had its own copies of perennial childhood favorites such as The Cat in the Hat or Tintin: Destination Moon were obviously to be envied, and naturally there was an informal waiting list to get your turn to take such a book out on loan. However my second year classroom contained a tome that was spoke of in whispers, for this was a collection of ghostly tales and therefore was not only cool to get your grubby little mitts on but it was also a badge of courage to be able to say you had read it! 

Obviously as a kid already mad keen on all things spectral and monstrous, I was desperate to get this highly coveted volume out of the class library. And as I'm sure many of have guessed, when I did at last get to borrow the book, I discovered that, like much playground lore, the claims about it had been somewhat exaggerated - sadly this book turned out not to be the promised bottomless well of nightmare-fuel. Rather than spine-chilling ghost stories or ghastly horror tales, instead here we had a collection of folk tales, fairy stories and old legends from around the world that had supernatural themes or elements. And while a couple of the stories had some spooky moments, on the whole they were somewhat less than terrifying, and certainly not the kind of tales that would, as the playground lore alleged, keep you awake for weeks...

To begin with, these stories were far removed from my immediate world - the tales here were safely tucked away in what I thought of as olden times and therefore I was fairly sure I was unlikely to encounter any of their terrors in my local area. On this matter I was very much in agreement with the great MR James who observed in his essay Ghosts- Treat Them Gently! that "the more remote in time the ghost the harder it is to make him effective". Secondly the assorted spooks and spectres often had a reason or a purpose, seeking to right a wrong for example, making then familiar and relatable rather mysterious and terrible. And thirdly, the cosy rounded nature of folk and fairy tales demanded that these assorted walkers in the night were to be comfortably laid to rest or defeated by the heroes and heroines of the tales.  

However despite not robbing me of sleep nor turning my hair white, I did thoroughly enjoy this little book. And while the stories might not have been blood chilling they were certainly entertaining and delightful. Ruth Manning-Saunders perfectly captured the tones of an old storyteller, spinning out tales packed with charm, character and imagination. Unlike many other writers who have retold old folk tales and legend, her prose was always colourful but never cute, traditional but never twee, and while she was clearly writing for a young audience her stories never talked down to their audience. 

Complimenting the stories beautifully were the illustrations by Robin Jacques. Possessing a distinct style all of his own, his art was highly detailed and simply gorgeous, and he could turn his hand to anything a tale required, being just as comfortable drawing noble princesses as he was skeletal horrors. I freely admit it spent many many hours in childhood - and in adulthood too - trying to master the kind of intricate shading and textures of his artwork.  

Indeed I was to spend a great many happy hours in the company of Manning-Sanders and Jacques, for I discovered that this volume was but one in a long running series. And so after having been delighted with the stories and art in this volume, I was soon hunting down its brethren, further retellings of folk and fairy tales from around the world, collected into themed collections. Naturally being the kind of child I was, A Book of Monsters, A Book of Dragons and A Book of Giants were high on my list to find and read. However I soon discovered there was plenty of monstrous and magical action in any book from Jacques and Manning-Sanders. And having read many volumes borrowed from local libraries, I'm still hunting downing editions of these enchanting books to this very day.